Panasonic In The Black New AV & Appliance Division 17,000 Jobs Slashed

Panasonic, who slashed jobs in Australia last month has not said whether any further job cuts will be made across their two local subsidiaries, Panasonic and Sanyo, following the announcement that the Japanese company will cut 17,000 jobs globally.Overnight the company reported its first profit in three years helped by a 32 percent lift in sales of audio-visual products and appliances. They have also announced the setting up of a new home appliance and CE business division.

Net income was $920 million for the 12 months ended March 31, compared with a loss a year earlier.

In recent weeks Panasonic had stopped production at six domestic plants making products including televisions, camera lenses, electronics materials and display panels after the disaster. A liquid-crystal display factory in Chiba prefecture, near Tokyo, will restart by end of this month, the last one to resume since the quake, the company said this month.

Revenue rose 17 percent to 8.69 trillion yen, the company said. Income at the main audio-visual products division increased 32 percent. Profit at the appliances unit rose 40 percent.

Steve Rust the CEO of Panasonic Australia said recently that he plans to expand the company’s appliance operations especially in the small appliance sector.

Panasonic, which as of March 31 has 366,937 employees worldwide, expects total employees to be at 350,000 by March 31, 2013 when the next fiscal year ends.

As part of the restructuring Panasonic will increase the purchase of LCD panels from outside vendors and transfer a production line of its third domestic PDP plant in Amagasaki City, in Japan, to China to reduce costs.

Commenting on the effects of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami in March Panasonic said while operations at factories in the disaster-hit region have been recovering steadily, disruptions in its supply chain are still affecting the group’s operations.

“Towards full recovery of the company and reconstruction of the nation, Panasonic continues to extend a helping hand to the people in the affected region, and at the same time, it is accelerating its efforts to restore its operations to normal state and prepare itself for future disaster risks. While Panasonic plans to cut cost and investment in accordance with changes in sales stemmed from the disaster, it is determined to play a significant role in the country’s reconstruction efforts with its products and business activities,” the company said.